Sorry this happened to you. Try not to think of him as "lucky". Things will probably get very bad for him, continuous crack use is a downward spiral, it starts off great but ends in misery.
The last time I smoked waas one of the worst experiences. I felt like I was having a stroke (probably from very high blood pressure), my vision was blurry, I was hearing things, I was not getting any pleasure from smoking, but the drug had such a hold that I could not stop. In fact, I smoked faster to try to get the euphoric feeling, but my brain was not capable of feeling good. The increased dosage just increased all of the other effects--high blood pressure, high temperature, etc. Whenever the thought of the euphoria that results from the first hit of a run comes into my mind, I try to immediately think of how I felt that morning. I thought I had done permanent damage.
Sorry again. If you haven't already, you should check out the family forums on this site.